By: JIM WALSH
Courier-Post Staff
March 29, 2010

TRENTON — With a push from some South Jersey legislators, one of the oldest traditions in New Jersey's State House is nearing an end.

State senators voted unanimously last week to end an official reliance on paper documents at Senate sessions and committee meetings, clearing the way for a planned system of laptops and wireless communications. A similar measure is pending in the Assembly.

Local legislators who back the change say it will save both paper and tax dollars.

"The Senate burns through literally tens of thousands of dollars in paper every year, most of which is never even read. There's no need for us to waste this much paper when everything can be done electronically," said Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester. He introduced the paperless plan March 8 along with Republican Leader Sen. Thomas H. Kean Jr., R-Union.

Lampitt said she typically works with a laptop and a hand-held Blackberry. But in the Assembly chamber, she noted, "I always have a pile of paper next to me. The law says it has to be there."

The change in the Senate rules took effect immediately, but the planned wireless system still must be developed by the Office of Legislative Services, said Derek Roseman, a Sweeney spokesman. He said the wireless system and laptops for 40 senators would likely cost about $40,000. That amount could be recovered in savings during one legislative session, Sweeney said.

"The chamber is still pretty much in the pen-and-ink stage," said Roseman, who noted there's no timetable for the new system's installation. "On a session day, the bills that the members have on their desk for reference are all photocopies. Whenever a change is made, they have to make new copies and distribute them to every senator."

Proponents point to Hawaii's Senate, saying it saved more than $1 million after going paperless in January 2008. That change reduced paper usage by 60 percent, but it also meant fewer workers were needed to copy documents and deliver them on the Senate floor, said Richard Rapoza, a spokesman for the Hawaiian Senate.

He described the previous paper-based system as "an endless process."

Currently, no New Jersey senator has Internet access in the Senate chamber, said Roseman, who noted some Assembly members have laptops during sessions under a pilot program.

"It's a great old building from another century," Roseman said of the State House, which was built in 1792. "But that doesn't mean it has to operate that way."

In the Assembly, Lampitt has also proposed a measure that state agencies should file year-end reports electronically, avoiding the expense of paper copies.

"I try to get people to print copies double-sided," she said.